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No meetings with party bigwigs, no fundraising, no network building.

He dipped in after a fundraiser for two House colleagues in Chicago, took photos with donors before giving a 20-minute speech in front of a few hundred people at the Iowa Republican Lincoln Dinner. He shook hands and went back to Wisconsin, where one speaker said he wanted to get home in time to tuck his kids into bed.

“Because they asked me to,” Ryan told a small clutch of reporters. “It was a commitment I made, gosh, I don’t know … a good year ago.”

He continued: “It’s a commitment — I keep my commitments.”

One commitment he hasn’t made: to run for president in 2016.

While Ryan’s allies say he doesn’t have to, since there are still 16 months until the presidential contest begins in earnest, his machinations — or lack thereof — stand in stark contrast to the rest of the field, who have begun laying the groundwork for a run.

Ryan’s moves in Iowa so far help reinforce what many in his inner circle privately believe: He’ll take a pass on 2016.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was here last week, meeting with his supporters from 2008 and other influential Republicans as he mulls another presidential bid.

A few weeks ago, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came for a home schooling conference and had a quick conversation with a former key Sen. Rick Santorum staffer. Cruz was trailed by an aide, who is already jotting down the names of potential supporters.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, meanwhile, has snapped up the outgoing state party chair as an aide and is using his political action committee to position himself. He’s considered the early frontrunner here, with the strongest in-state network.

Paul, Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal are all scheduled to speak at Iowa’s GOP convention in June — and sources here say all three are scheduling events to begin drumming up support for a possible 2016 run.

So, while high-profile Republicans begin revving up for the brutal caucus season less than two years away, Ryan is acting more like the future Ways and Means chairman than a White House hopeful.

“I’m not going to get into any of that stuff,” Ryan said, when asked if the chairmanship would preempt running for president. “Right now I am focused on doing my job, I’m focused on 2014. I’m focused on helping out my party. I’m focused on getting us to win elections, and it’s just premature to get into all that stuff.”

They say the time is just right to begin making the rounds across the state. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who has served with Ryan for more than a decade, said Ryan should start, noting that it’s important “because it’s your neighboring state. It’s different if you’re coming from, say, Massachusetts. So I think that he would want to put together, early, an effective Iowa strategy if he’s interested in running.”

“I don’t see signals that he is positioning himself as aggressively as some of the other people that are likely candidates,” said King, whose advice is frequently sought by potential candidates. “He’s got a good image in Iowa, and he’s a neighbor, from a neighboring state, and he built a good image as a vice presidential candidate, that’s all a plus for him. But whether he’s ready to make that move or not, I’m not seeing those indications. I’m not seeing it by the moves he’s making by the hires, I’m not seeing it just watching the flow of interactivity here in the House, that organism that after a while you get the feel for — it’s not telling me he’s positioning himself aggressively that way.”